A GROUP of exchange students from Tanzania and other countries have been placed in deplorable conditions in Pennsylvania, United States, with some becoming malnourished or living in buildings strewn with dog faeces, it has been revealed.

Prosecutors in the US say the amount of neglect inflicted upon the high school students merits criminal charges being brought against those responsible.

The Deputy District Attorney for Lackawanna County in Pennsylvania, Michelle Olshefski, said an investigation has confirmed that foreign exchange students from Tanzania and elsewhere were placed in unsuitable homes by a former employee of Aspect Foundation, a San Francisco, California-based non-profit organisation that brings about 1,000 exchange students into the US each year.

The DAs (district attorneys) office is convinced that criminal activity occurred, that there was a pattern of criminal neglect and a pattern of placing these children in danger, not only of physical harm but emotional and psychological harm, said Olshefski, who heads the special victims unit.

We believe that criminal charges are warranted, she added.

The former area coordinator with Aspect Foundation, Edna Burgette, was fired after allegations surfaced in May this year of the malnourished students living in houses in Scranton, Pennsylvania whose floors were covered with dog faeces.

Burgette was paid $400 for each student she placed under the exchange programme.

The scandal involves as many as 12 exchange students from Tanzania, Vietnam, Nigeria, Denmark, Colombia, Norway and France.

It could not be immediately established how many Tanzanian students are currently taking part in the exchange programme organised by Aspect Foundation.

The US State Department, which regulates private student-exchange organisations like Aspect, is reported to have now imposed a range of penalties on the non-profit organisation, including a 15 per cent reduction in the number of visas it will be allowed to distribute next school year.

Aspect Foundation fully acknowledges that what happened in Scranton was deplorable and in complete violation of their own strict standards and those of the Department of States exchange visitor programme, Aspect spokeswoman Karen Walsh wrote in an email.

She said the foundation has corrected the problems, fired or accepted resignations of those responsible, and established procedures to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.

Olshefski declined to say if or when charges will be filed, or who could be charged. But she said an investigation continues into whether others knew or should have known that the students were being mistreated.

We have our suspicions that others, in a way, played a part in Ednas ability to do what she did. Our investigation continues into whether their conduct rises to be criminal, she said.

A US grand jury has been investigating the scandal. Because grand jury proceedings in Pennsylvania are secret, Olshefski stressed that her comments are based on a criminal probe that took place outside the grand jury.

In May this year, 17-year-old exchange student Nicklas Schreyer from Denmark - who was sent to Pennsylvania to spend a school year at a local high school - explained how he quickly discovered things werent the way Aspect Foundation had promised.

He shared a small bedroom with an exchange student from Tanzania. He was threatened with being sent back to Denmark when he broke a house rule, such as leaning on the dinner table.

He couldnt attend field trips to places like New York City and Washington DC, because he said the area programme coordinator, Edna Burgette, never told him about these trips. He also said whenever he called her for help, she hung up, and his pleas were ignored.

I tried to tell Edna I couldnt live like that because there were some crazy rules in the house, Schreyer said. She kept telling me to just be happy I had a family and a roof over my head, and then she would just hang up on me.

After about a month, Schreyer called his mother in Denmark, who reached out to the authorities for help.

The treatment of Schreyer and his Tanzanian roommate, along with at least 10 other exchange students in various parts of Pennsylvania, has become the subject of an official investigation by local officials and the US Department of State.

The Tanzanian exchange student (name withheld for now) who had been living with Schreyer could not be reached for comment.

The Deputy Minister for Education and Vocational Training, Ms Mwantumu Mahiza, who is currently in Dodoma attending the annual parliamentary budget session, said she did not have an immediate comment on the matter, instead referring THISDAY to the ministrys permanent secretary in Dar es Salaam.

According to the Aspect Foundation website, it was founded in 1985 as a small non-profit organisation offering affordable, study-abroad opportunities to students from more than 50 countries, including Tanzania.

The exchange students live with volunteer host families in more than 350 communities throughout the United States.

We adhere to strict standards for student and host family selection, and we provide all participants with solid preparation for this once-in-a-lifetime experience, Aspect claims on its website.

A TANZANIAN student who was part of a group of foreign exchange students subjected to nightmare conditions in the United States has narrated how he was mistreated by his host and left malnourished.

Secondary school student Musa Mpulki, who recently returned home, spent nine months in the US under a controversial student exchange programme.

In an interview with CNN before he left the US for home, Musa said he did not want to upset his mother, so he never told her that he had little to eat during his stay in the home of a 72-year-old American man who had put up signs on his refrigerator saying some food was only for family.

A TANZANIAN student who was part of a group of foreign exchange students subjected to nightmare conditions in the United States has narrated how he was mistreated by his host and left malnourished.

Secondary school student Musa Mpulki, who recently returned home, spent nine months in the US under a controversial student exchange programme.

In an interview with CNN before he left the US for home, Musa said he did not want to upset his mother, so he never told her that he had little to eat during his stay in the home of a 72-year-old American man who had put up signs on his refrigerator saying some food was only for family.

The Deputy District Attorney for Lackawanna County in Pennsylvania, Michelle Olshefski, said an investigation has confirmed that foreign exchange students from Tanzania and elsewhere were placed in unsuitable homes by a former employee of Aspect Foundation, a San Francisco, California-based non-profit organisation that brings about 1,000 exchange students into the US each year.

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The former area coordinator with Aspect Foundation, Edna Burgette, was fired after allegations surfaced in May this year of the malnourished students living in houses in Scranton, Pennsylvania whose floors were covered with dog faeces.

In May this year, 17-year-old exchange student Nicklas Schreyer from Denmark - who was sent to Pennsylvania to spend a school year at a local high school - explained how he quickly discovered things weren't the way Aspect Foundation had promised.

He shared a small bedroom with the exchange student from Tanzania. He was threatened with being sent back to Denmark when he broke a house rule, such as leaning on the dinner table.